The Games That We Play
by Enomys
Summary: We all know that Azula broke down after the fateful Agni Kai. But why? It turns out that it wasn't because she couldn't be Fire Lord...


Aang danced gleefully around the room, while Katara, Suki, Zuko, Sokka, and I looked on. Soon, Toph felt the vibrations and trudged to where Aang joyfully celebrated.

"Hey guys. Why's Twinkletoes so happy?" she inquired.

"Oh, he's just found out that Enomys will never own him," responded Katara.

Toph looked in my direction. Her blank eyes showed only amusement when she said "Bummer for you, Scribbler."

My response was to scrunch myself into a ball and glare fiercely at anyone who happened to look my way.

P. S. I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

**The Games That We Play**

Azula squished her eyes shut against the tears. She was ashamed that she had let herself go so completely, but now that she was crying, she just couldn't stop. How could they have defeated her? She had always won before.

_FLASHBACK SEQUENCE!_

_She spied her brother at the other end of the meadow. The royal family had taken to Ember Island for the summer holiday, and all of the children had been banished to the outdoors. Since Lu Ten was not quite a child any more, he had been allowed to stay inside and play Pai Shoi with his father, the Crown Prince. Why he wanted to do that, she had no clue. Anyway, now the only person she had to play with was Zuko, whom she had finally found sitting among the dancing waves of long green grass. He was sitting under the lone tree on the top of the hill, and he was staring out over the ocean._

"_Gotcha!" she shrieked with delight as she dropped from the tree branch in front of his head. She had crept up behind the tree, climbed the trunk with ease, and silently scrambled to the branch above Zuko's head._

_He had leaped up in surprise, a startled look in his eyes that had quickly turned to anger._

"_That's not funny Azula!" he yelled at the top of his lungs._

_She giggled evilly. She had won again, at least, in her eyes._

"_What do you want?" he demanded, less loudly, but still angrily and cautiously._

"_Mom said that I had to come outside, so you have to play a game with me," she had said imperiously._

"_No way! You'll just use it as another way to humiliate me!" said Zuko, still smarting over her latest practical joke, which had involved him running at Mei to knock an apple off of her head._

"_No I won't," she protested. "I'm just bored! I promise!" she claimed while using the bambi eyes to convey her innocence and crossing two fingers behind her back._

_Her brother seemed to soften at her wide-eyed, pleading expression._

"_Okay, what do you want to play?" he asked, somewhat grudgingly._

_The answer came swiftly and cheerfully. "Hide and Explode!" she yelped._

_Her brother rolled his eyes. Of course that was what she wanted to play._

"_Okay, okay," he muttered. "I'll count to one hundred. But I don't know where you are going to hide…"_

_The sound of Zuko's voice faded as she ran gleefully down the hill, the breeze filling her ears. She already knew what she was going to do._

* * *

_She giggled softly to herself as she watched her brother approach her hidden niche. She smiled as she recalled her plan of ambush. Tucked between the wall and her arm was a rotten moon peach that she had found in the courtyard garden where her mother had planted a grove of the peach trees._

_She smiled to herself as she watched her hapless brother fruitlessly search for his sister. He wouldn't find her here, she was sure of it. She had climbed up a pole on the outside of the house to reach this secluded spot between the walls of the upper floor, and now she just had to wait for Zuko to find her (doubtful!) or to come beneath her hiding place._

_Zuko approached slowly, staring about like Azula should be hiding in plain sight. She shook her head in dismay. Surely he knew that she wouldn't be that stupid! She fixed her predatory eyes on him again, and now he was only two steps away. Closer, closer, she silently urged him, and he seemed to listen, staggering forward the remaining steps. Perfect, she thought, and quickly lobbed the fruit onto her brother's head._

_The peach landed with a satisfying splat, covering Zuko in a wet, orangey-yellow muck. He jumped and shrieked like a girly-girl, hopping around. When he finally managed to get the gunk out of his eyes, he looked up to see his sister madly cackling. She finally jumped from her perch to land perfectly on her feet, further infuriating Zuko._

"_Why do you always have to do that!?!" he demanded angrily._

_She just smiled. This is what she had planned for: Zuko's angry face was priceless._

_He stomped off, no doubt in search of their mother. What a whiner, she thought happily. She was super satisfied with her work; she had just won another sibling battle. And so she wandered away from the house, to avoid the lecture that her mother was surely waiting to deliver._

* * *

Suddenly, she understood. This had nothing to do with the indignity of being chained to a grate. This had nothing to do with her being frozen in ice. No, her tears were caused by just one thing: her brother had finally beaten her at last.

* * *

First time trying Azula! Hopefully I got her right. But the only way I'll ever know is if you readers review. So please, review!


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